Tuesday, 31 May 2016

What a huge adventure my journey from London Gatwick to El Porvenir, Honduras has been. From the taxi ride in England (from our house to the airport and driven by a true geezer) to stopping in Canada and The States - finally arriving in this beautifully stereotypical Caribbean town of El Porvenir. Exhausted from the 30 hr journey, all I am going to put for now are some photos below of our bus journey when finally in Honduras. This was from San Pedro Sula aiport to La Ceiba city. Once I'm more refreshed and aquainted with my new colleagues and the area I will be returning to this blog - adding more in-depth stories and accounts. For now it's time to rest - a descansar...

Wednesday, 25 May 2016

This new blog of mine has been created with the intention of documenting a very exciting new chapter of my life. This being my return to Honduras - a country I am truly in love with.

It has been two years since I took off from the runway at Tegucigalpa (Honduras capital city) on my return to the UK after having volunteered with the British NGO 'Progressio ICS' during the summer of 2014. I vowed that I'd be back as the Delta plane engulfed itself in the hazy clouds - a charismatic feature of Honduras. My three-month long experience in primarily Lempira department, western Honduras had been a life changing adventure. If interested, please see the following links to another blog of mine below, which covers some articles on my summer of 2014.

For the last two years I have been primarily in Spain - learning Spanish and experiencing the cultures there. There are also articles on this within the same blog covering Honduras (links above). During that entire time I had been all over the web and consistently making contacts in the attempt to fulfil my dream, being to return to Latin America and find work of a charitable nature - something that benefits the people within this magical yet troubled continent. I started blogging for a Dominican charity (links following) in order to gain some experience in communications for NGO's.

To cut to the chase as there is much to include which needn't be - my hard work finally paid off. It couldn't have happened at a better time either and I am very proud to say that I'll be serving the Honduran Child Alliance as an intern Development Manager in El Porvenir, Atlántida department within the Caribbean zone of Honduras. This organization works to improve the lives of deprived children in El Porvenir primarily. I attach some links below.

I will be using this blog to cover a more private side of my time in El Porvenir including outer journeys as well. The reason being that I shall be setting up other blogs about the actual charity work for the HCA - so this seeks to include observations and notes from my own personal perspective. I hope to include many images and videos too. I invite you to follow this page and share the articles as this blog 'La Vida Catracha' grows...

*'La Vida Catracha' translates to 'the Catracha life'. 'Catracho' is a name that was given centuries ago by the Nicaraguan people to Honduran soldiers led by a General Xatruch. On their return through Nicaragua from a battle against North American invaders the locals shouted 'mira, aqui vienen los Xatruches!' or 'here come Xatruche's men!'. The Nicaraguans as a whole though - couldn't pronounce the General's sirname well so the 'x' became a 'c' - ending up as 'los Catrachos'. This name then caught on and it wasn't long before Honduran people en masse were called 'Catrachos' by all their Central American neighbours. It is the same as a name like 'Yanks' for North Americans' or 'Limeys' for Brits. 'La vida' or 'the life' is feminine in Spanish so one must make 'Catracho' feminine by changing the ending 'o' to an 'a'. Hondurans refer happily to themselves as Catrachos or Catrachas - depending on the person's gender.

Top image: Honduras position within Central America. The HCA are based near La Ceiba.

Bottom photo: Our entire Progressio ICS group at the beginning of my first landing in Honduras. I am stood third from left (standing) with long sleeved white shirt.